New Zealand's secondary teachers’ union has called for talks with the Government about its plan to remove gender and relationship guidelines from school curriculums, despite teachers not being consulted on the matter.

As part of its wider coalition agreement, the Government has said it will remove the guidelines introduced back in 2020.

But acting president of the Post Primary Teachers' Association, Chris Abercrombie, said nobody has heard from Minister of Education, Erica Stanford despite school starting in a couple of weeks.

"The only thing we've heard from Government is one interview that was on RNZ”, Abercrombie told Summer Breakfast this morning.

"That is all we know from the Government on this policy."

Abercrombie explained that teachers are trying to plan their school year and will be incorporating the existing curriculum - which includes teaching students about gender and relationships.

He said the lack of clarity was leaving teachers in the lurch.

"Plans are made last year for what's going to be taught and how it's going to be taught, and then all of a sudden we might need to change it all - so it's really concerning that nothing's come out yet," he said.

"It's going to be in every school but it is a part of the curriculum so time is allocated for it, normally in PE and health or standalone health classes. It could be quite a significant amount of time and teachers may have to change it."

Abercrombie said the sector questioned why the guidelines are being removed and none of the reasons given so far have been considered valid.

"If the Prime Minister said they wanted to make sure it was age-appropriate, it requires parents to be consulted and give parents the right to withdraw their children from it - all of that already exists within the law, so what's the problem?" he said.

"These guidelines were developed by experts with input from the sector. So we're really questioning what they are trying to solve here."

Summer Breakfast host Tim Dower suggested that parents had raised concerns about gender ideology being introduced to the school curriculum and if it was the school's place to educate their children about such matters.

Abercrombie called gender ideology a buzzword "flying around at the moment" and teachers wanted to solve how the school could play the best role in improving a child's development.

"School is about helping our young people be the best that they can be so they can contribute the most they can to our society, and this is part of it," he said.

"It's a really difficult area so for me, it's about all schools, about the relationship between home and school and the school community. And that's really important - this should be done in consultation and that's why in the law it has to be consulted."

Dower said the issue had similarities to the 1970s legislation about concerns homosexuality and bizarre gender beliefs were being promoted within schools and asked Abercrombie if that was going on within a school's walls.

Abercrombie bluntly rejected the suggestion.

"Absolutely not," he said.

"Young people are gonna be young people, I don't think a teacher saying 'homosexuality exists' is going to make young people gay - that's just one of the silliest things ever."

Abercrombie said many teachers were concerned that when young people weren't being educated properly on these topics, they went to the internet and sources like pornography to find their answers.

He said the research the young people were conducting for themselves wasn't helpful and needed to be within a controlled environment.

"If parents are concerned about this then have conversations with your children, talk to your school about what's happening in the curriculum, get that information - they'll give it to you," he said.

"But the last thing we want is that these young people have questions that go unanswered."

Abercrombie's message for Stanford was clear: "We'd love it if we were involved in this, we want to know your reasoning - why? Get us involved, we don't see the need for the change so just have a conversation with us."